Refining Essay 2

I wanted to get a fresh perspective on my essay so I asked my dad to look at it and give me some feedback, he used to be an English teacher and lecturer. I found the feedback very useful, I have been trying to fine tune my bit by bit and had lost sight of the overall format. He gave me some suggestions on the order I have included quotes which I have taken on board and tried to remodel my essay to make it easier to understand and to show the progression of my essay question and research. I have removed some of the quotes that either didn't completely fit the structure of the essay or were similar to other quotes that I think communicated my research more effectively. So far I have trimmed my essay down from 5000 words to around 3500 and don't think it has had a detrimental effect. I am still struggling with the order of a few sections of the essay and think I need to improve the way I have summarised my research in certain sections but overall I feel I am making some good progress and that the essay will work as an effective summary of my research.

Refining essay

I have started to refine my essay, I have been using my research as a template to work from. The essay is far too long at the moment and needs to be refined, I also need to change the way it is written. At the moment a lot of the essay is written as if it is a blog post, lots of paragraphs starting with "I think" and lots of quotes that need to be trimmed down to specific sections that I want to refer to. I have been working through the template using my research blog posts as a reference and structure then reworking the wording and content as I go. I think I will need to refine the essay a number of times to make it flow, I have ordered the research in a way that I think best communicates my research and findings but want to make sure the information doesn't seem like separate chunks of information. during my research I have focussed in more and more onto fiction and really enjoyed the process so would like this to be evident in my essay. I am also going to conduct more visual research to see if it gives me more of an insight into my subject.

Evaluating Research

I copied and pasted my research for this essay into a word document and wrote some extra paragraphs to segue between them. I wanted to see how many words it would be to get an idea of how to plan my essay. The total word count was just over five thousand so I need to trim it down a lot to meet the criteria. this have given me a good idea of what it is I have to do and I think it will make it easier to plan my essay. A lot of the research is me trying to find out where the research is leading me and what it is I want to know so I think I can condense it down a lot without having to leave out anything I think is important. I want to essay to flow through the research and be easy to read and not feel like clumps of information that have been forced together. I have really enjoyed the research for this project and want my essay to show that. I think the research I have done follows a logical path that should make sense to the reader although I may have to separate and reorder some of my source material to make my points as clear as possible.

Lists

I decided to make a list of the research I have been doing for my essay and try to arrange the information into an order that would help me structure my writing. I don't want to just go through each individual piece of research one by one, I want to go back and forth between the various sources as the research becomes relevant. Much of the research backs up theories or offers alternatives and I would like to use the contrasting opinions to explore my subject. My question is still based on escapism but as the research has progressed it has become more focussed on fiction. I have found that fiction offers the most complete and interesting studies and has had the biggest impact on society out of all the escapist activities I have looked at.

Why is fiction good for you

Why is fiction good for you

I have just found a really good article from the Boston Globe titled 'why is fiction good you'

The article starts off talking about the negative public perception of fiction at different times in history then goes on to try and explain why we have come to this hold these views. The article then looks at recent studies that shed light on how we are affected by reading fiction and the positive effect it has on us and society. I have just found this article while at work so will give it another more detailed read later and research the sources that are quoted in it.

The article talks about fiction being able to change peoples ideas and beliefs even more so that nonfiction. research has shown that when we read nonfiction we are sceptical and keep our guard up but when we become immersed in a story we let our guard down and become more impressionable.

"perhaps the most impressive finding is just how fiction shapes us: mainly for the better, not for the worse. Fiction enhances our ability to understand other people; it promotes a deep morality that cuts across religious and political creeds. More peculiarly, fiction’s happy endings seem to warp our sense of reality. They make us believe in a lie: that the world is more just than it actually is. But believing that lie has important effects for society — and it may even help explain why humans tell stories in the first place."

For a long time people have debated whether fiction is detrimental to society, these debates have culminated in events such as book burnings. Plato tried to ban fiction from his ideal republic. it is possible that one the reasons that fiction been attacked on so many occasions is just how powerful it is. The average American spends 4 hours a day watching television. The content could be another reason that fiction has been condemned is the subject matter. From television to novels to plays there has always been a tendency for fiction to tackle morally repulsive behaviour and with the impact that we are starting to understand it can have on a persons views, should we be worried?

psychologist Raymond Mar writes, “Researchers have repeatedly found that reader attitudes shift to become more congruent with the ideas expressed in a [fictional] narrative.”
The article states that studies have reliably shown that "when we watch a TV show that treats gay families nonjudgmentally (say, “Modern Family”), our own views on homosexuality are likely to move in the same nonjudgmental direction."
History has also shown us how much of an influence fiction can be on the morals of a society either in a negative or positive capacity. two polarising examples of this are "Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” helped bring about the Civil War by convincing huge numbers of Americans that blacks are people, and that enslaving them is a mortal sin. On the other hand, the 1915 film “The Birth of a Nation” inflamed racist sentiments and helped resurrect an all but defunct KKK. "

Fiction can be incredibly influential on society having a positive or negative impact. But is it down to the author to determine the moral values of their work. I don't think it is entirely possible to guarantee that people will react to a piece of fiction the way it was intended and there is also the possibility of the story being misused or misunderstood. For example 'The Protocols of The Elders of Zion' was written as a work of fiction but 60 years later it was used as propaganda by the Nazi's and some people to this day still don't believe the book is a work of fiction. This must be a scary thought for anyone who writes fiction.

One thing that fiction manages to do that should be able to unite all sections of society is increase our capacity for empathy. Studies have shown that people who spend a lot of time reading fiction out perform nonfiction readers on tests of empathy.
"novelist George Eliot, that one of fiction’s main jobs is to “enlarge men’s sympathies.”"
"As Oatley puts it, fiction serves the function of “making the world a better place by improving interpersonal understanding.” "

"one study showed that small children (age 4-6) who were exposed to a large number of children’s books and films had a significantly stronger ability to read the mental and emotional states of other people."

"Washington & Lee psychologist Dan Johnson recently had people read a short story that was specifically written to induce compassion in the reader. He wanted to see not only if fiction increased empathy, but whether it would lead to actual helping behavior. Johnson found that the more absorbed subjects were in the story, the more empathy they felt, and the more empathy they felt, the more likely the subjects were to help when the experimenter “accidentally” dropped a handful of pens — highly absorbed readers were twice as likely to help out. “In conclusion,” Johnson writes, “it appears that ‘curling up with a good book’ may do more than provide relaxation and entertainment. Reading narrative fiction allows one to learn about our social world and as a result fosters empathic growth and prosocial behavior.” "

"As the Brandeis literary scholar William Flesch argues, fiction all over the world is strongly dominated by the theme of poetic justice. Generally speaking, goodness is endorsed and rewarded and badness is condemned and punished. Stories — from modern films to ancient fairy tales — steep us all in the same powerful norms and values. True, antiheroes, from Milton’s Satan to Tony Soprano, captivate us, but bad guys are almost never allowed to live happily ever after. And fiction generally teaches us that it is profitable to be good. "

"In Appel’s study, people who mainly watched drama and comedy on TV — as opposed to heavy viewers of news programs and documentaries — had substantially stronger “just-world” beliefs. Appel concludes that fiction, by constantly exposing us to the theme of poetic justice, may be partly responsible for the sense that the world is, on the whole, a just place.
This is despite the fact, as Appel puts it, “that this is patently not the case.” As people who watch the news know very well, bad things happen to good people all the time, and most crimes go unpunished. In other words, fiction seems to teach us to see the world through rose-colored lenses. And the fact that we see the world that way seems to be an important part of what makes human societies work. "

From everything I have read it would appear that fiction is beneficial to society. it teaches us to care about each other and be happy when the good guys win and sad when the bad guys win. It creates a feeling of community even on a global scale. It teaches us that doing the right thing will and treating people with respect will mean we will be treated the same even though we know that isn't true. If we based our actions purely on what we see happening on the news would we have the same moral codes we adhere to at the moment? and if everyone was just looking out for them selves would society function? The sceptical side of me thinks that there could be a problem with the effect of fiction if it blinds us to our surroundings to the extent that we can be manipulated or unaware of governments taking advantage of our moral values. That is however a very negative view and I prefer to think of fiction as freedom, a way for people to escape their surrounding without being bound by money or social status. Through these escapes we can learn how to cope with situations in our real lives that we may not have encountered yet and see things from vastly different points of view.

Refining Essay Question

I need to refine my essay question and come up with an essay plan, the subject of escapism is extremely broad and I want to make sure I research in relation to society. Escapism activities are often viewed as negative, timewasting and running away from problems. Names of characters that are thought of as escapist have been used as insults by high ranking political officials. I think that escapism is not as simple as running away and hiding from 'real life' , I think there are many benefits that can be gained through escapist activities. I think through these activities we can learn how to make sense of the complexities of the world around us. There are theories that suggest we have developed empathy through literacy, especially fiction. Fiction allows us to see through the eyes of other people. In the past we only felt empathy for a small group of people, friends, family. Through fiction we have been able to learn more about other cultures and see things from a wide variety of perspectives. if these theories are correct, fiction (which is essentially an escapist activity) could have had a huge impact on society. I think my question should be

Why is escapism viewed in a negative way and are these views justified?

I want to start the essay looking at psychological studies of escapism and exploring the possible positive and negative effects. Next I want to look at the way escapism is portrayed in popular culture such a television and film. Then look at genres in fiction and how they have changed over time: I want to explore whether genre can have a positive or negative effect on how the book is viewed. Then I want to look at theories relating to escapism and empathy looking at their effects on the individual and society as a whole.

Empathy

The Better Angels of Our Nature

This article from the guardian is an extract from Steven Pinker's book 'the Better Angels of Our Nature'. In the book and in this article Pinker talks about the effect the printing press has had on society. His focus is on the drop in violence over time and the changes in society that have effected it. He talks about the invention of the printing press having a big effect on society, literacy became more common and reading allowed people to develop empathy by seeing the world through another persons eyes. This development of empathy coincides with violence levels dropping.

"The power of literacy to lift readers out of their parochial stations is not confined to factual writing. We have already seen how satirical fiction, which transports readers into a hypothetical world from which they can observe the follies of their own, may be an effective way to change people's sensibilities without haranguing or sermonizing."

"the full-strength causal hypothesis may be more than a fantasy of English teachers. The ordering of events is in the right direction: technological advances in publishing, the mass production of books, the expansion of literacy, and the popularity of the novel all preceded the major humanitarian reforms of the 18th century. And in some cases a bestselling novel or memoir demonstrably exposed a wide range of readers to the suffering of a forgotten class of victims and led to a change in policy. Around the same time that Uncle Tom's Cabin mobilized abolitionist sentiment in the United States, Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist (1838) and Nicholas Nickleby (1839) opened people's eyes to the mistreatment of children in British workhouses and orphanages, and Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea (1840) and Herman Melville's White Jacket helped end the flogging of sailors. In the past century Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, George Orwell's 1984, Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Elie Wiesel's Night, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse- Five, Alex Haley's Roots, Anchee Min's Red Azalea, Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, and Alice Walker's Possessing the Secret of Joy (a novel that features female genital mutilation) all raised public awareness of the suffering of people who might otherwise have been ignored."

Although Pinker is not talking about what is known as 'escapist fiction' all fiction is a form of escapism and his writing points out some of the possible benefits not just to the individual but to society as a whole. Not small benefits, huge society changing benefits that may well have moulded the way we live today. I am starting to try and find a clearer focus for my essay. Escapism is a broad term and has so many guises and implications. I want to look at the pro's and cons of escapism and why it has a bad reputation. I think I should focus on fiction as my escapist activity and see where it takes me. I have found some interesting opinions on escapism from psychologists and authors, I think it is time to revisit my research and try to formulate a more detailed essay plan.




"Fiction is empathy technology."
Pinker

Sketches

I found an article from the telegraph talking about low doors in wall being used in literature as a way to capture our imaginations. I found some good quotes in the article that attempt to explain why these doorways are so often used to spark our curiosity.

Telegraph Article

"Now, in our imaginations, they would also represent the way to those most inaccessible places, such as ideal childhoods or parallel, more exciting universes. Whether or not we discover such metaphorical low doors, we feel, determines nothing less than how much we get from life; whether we just skim helplessly over the years until the coffin lid closes, unaware of what life has to offer, or whether we successfully milk it for everything it’s got. "

"Here is a feature positively groaning with symbolism, association and meaning."

"Not that where a low door leads matters much: it’s the notion that’s so exciting. In the 20th century, the social changes wrought by two world wars helped condition us – assisted, obviously, by F. Hodgson Burnett – to the idea that secret gardens are places of wistful dereliction. But having alighted on a portal to paradise, who would quibble about what follows?"


I started working on some visual research for my essay, working on the idea of doorways or portals into different worlds. The idea being to compare them with the portals we use to escape from our day to day lives through escapism. I like the images of the famous portals from film and literature and how they are used to tell stories but for the purposes of my essay I think the routes we take into escapism will be of more use.

Line or Shape

I looked for images to do with borders between worlds, I kept finding images of doorways or portals. I started to realise that the connection or route between the worlds is the subject of my essay. escapism offers people a route out of their own existence and into another. The images of doorways, paths, portals or wormholes to name a few form some interesting shapes and comparisons.

I want to start my visual research by creating illustrations of famous doors/portals from literature and film. I think a collection of them would make an intriguing poster which would tie into the death of the author. The message of the piece would depend on the viewers own memories and experiences. Many of the portals used in film have similar shapes and characteristics. I would also like to explore how these portals are used as a storytelling tool.

Ideas

I want to try and add some direction to my essay. I have done some research looking at the reasons escapism is viewed in a negative way and how that impacts on escapist fiction authors. I think it would be interesting to explore whether there is a moral obligation for authors to try and tailor their work in such a way that it can have a positive impact on the readers lives. Neil Gaiman talks about fiction taking the reader to new worlds and equipping them with weapons and skills that they can use in the real world. I want to address some questions in my essay.

Do authors have a responsibility to create fiction that supports and educates to the reader?

Can escapism have a positive impact on a persons life?

Is it unhealthy for someone to avoid all escapist activities?

Do views on escapism vary in different cultures?

Quotes

I have been trying to connect my essay question to the idea of 'line', although I have an idea I would like to explore I have not been able to find images depicting lines and borders between good and bad or the line between everyday life and the worlds we escape into through films, books and other escapist activities. I am going to look more at film as fantasy films often deal with a physical manifestation of these borders. I have been collecting quotes from a variety  of sources based on escapism.

"I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?"

J. R. R. Tolkien

"Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort."

Jean Cocteau

   "Would we be so enamored with dystopian fiction if we lived in a culture where violent death was a major concern? It wouldn't be escapism."
Maggie Stiefvater

"People talk about escapism as though it's something nasty but escapism is wonderful!"

Margaret Forster

   "I never fully understood it till my friend Professor Tolkien asked me the very simple question, 'What class of men would you expect to be most preoccupied with, and hostile to, the idea of escape?' and gave the obvious answer: jailers."

C. S. Lewis

"There's no real objection to escapism, in the right places... We all want to escape occasionally. But science fiction is often very far from escapism, in fact you might say that science fiction is escape into reality... It's a fiction which does concern itself with real issues: the origin of man; our future. In fact I can't think of any form of literature which is more concerned with real issues, reality."

Arthur C Clarke

"Paradise was always over there, a day's sail away. But it's a funny thing, escapism. You can go far and wide and you can keep moving on and on through places and years, but you never escape your own life. I, finally, knew where my life belonged. Home."
J Maarten Troost

"...When people lose their way and lack a real purpose for living they often fall back on certain forms of escapism as a form of self-soothing..."

John Geddes

I wanted to try and find a footing that would allow me to discover new avenues to investigate. I think that gaining these varieties of different points of view or interpretations of escapism will help me to find these paths.

      

        

Line

Todays COP seminar was very interesting and has given me some ideas on how to start my visual journal. We talked about definitions of line, shape, texture and colour. The definitions of line really interested me, the idea of boundaries or divides opens up a lot of possible avenues to explore in terms of society, culture and history. More specifically when applied to my subject I think about the divide between our everyday lives and the places we escape to. There seems to be a widely held belief that the two are completely separate even though lots of people manage to successfully tailor their entire lives around activities that others would see as escapist.  Another example of  the meaning of the line is a line we should not cross, what makes an escapist activity a positive one and at what point do we go too far into this world and lose touch with the 'real world'?

The idea of lines being boundaries also ties in to the Neil Gaiman interview about genre. Genres are invisible boundaries that can either be inclusive or exclusive depending on your point of view. they are a toll that helps to organise and market an overcrowded marketplace but more than that. Over timed they have formed into some kind of hierarchical structure where certain genres are revered and other looked down upon. A genres position in this hierarchy can change over time with trends and some can disappear all together. These boarders act as constraints, there are rules that must be abided by to be part of the group. very few authors dare to cross these boundaries, this may well be due to publishers demands and the need to cater to an audience that has a set of expectations that must be met.

Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro

I found an interview between Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro talking about genre, although not directly related to escapism they talk about the genre snobbery in literature which I think could shine a light on the causes of negative feeling towards escapist fiction. The opening dialogue straight away tackles to invisible boundaries that genres create and the way that the age of a book changes how it is perceived. Kazuo Ishiguro asks "Why are people so preoccupied? What is genre in the first place? Who invented it? Why am I perceived to have crossed a kind of boundary?". Genres are a useful way for people to find similar books to the ones they know they like, but they seem to have become a constraint on writers. Genres create preconceptions about what a book should contain which takes away a writers ability to write freely.

Neil Gaiman makes the point that "if you were a novelist writing in 1920 or 1930, you would simply be perceived as having written another novel. When Dickens published A Christmas Carol nobody went, “Ah, this respectable social novelist has suddenly become a fantasy novelist: look, there are ghosts and magic.” It may well be the case that it is writers that have dared to cross the boundaries have created the most interesting, thought provoking work. Genres seem to have developed from a way to distinguish between different subjects to a format that writers must adhere to.

What seems to be apparent is that genres are most useful to publishers and book shops as a way to market their product to a specific audience and that over time genres change to reflect the market. Neil Gaiman metions talking to someone who worked in Borders whose job it was to find where to put books that were in the horror section when they got rid of the genre from the stores. The market for horror was dying out and books previously placed in this section were spread out between science fiction, fantasy and thriller. This had a nock on effect on the authors who had to market themselves to their new target audience.
Neil Gaiman talks about the sudden commercial success of fantasy in the 1960's when Lord of the Rings became very popular with a wide audience of people that would not necessarily be pre existing fans of fiction. This popularity caused the major publishers to trawl their archiver for anything that was written in a similar way. As well as this there were new authors that started to write very similar stories.
"By the time fantasy had its own area in the bookshop, it was deemed inferior to mimetic, realistic fiction. I think reviewers and editors did not know how to speak fantasy; were not familiar with the language, did not recognise it." NG
The negative view of fantasy caused various authors to feel the need to defend the credibility of the works and their authors. Neil Gaiman picks out two quotes from famous authors reacting to these views.

A S Byatt said "These are real books, they’re saying important things and they are beautifully crafted,”

Terry Pratchett said “You know, you can do all you want, but you put in one fucking dragon and they call you a fantasy writer.”

A S Byatts quote possibly has more weight to it as she was not a labelled as a fantasy writer. The fact that a well established writer who won the Booker Prize and has been named in lists of great British writers shows haw widespread the negative view of fantasy has spread and how the genre defines the novels rather than the other way round. Once an negative association has been made it can be hard to shake, a genre could contain numerous works worthy of praise that are overlooked due to the way they are labelled.
In the interview Kazuo Ishiguro mentions something interesting.

"it probably wouldn’t have occur­red to me to use the science-fiction dimension for Never Let Me Go ten or 15 years earlier. I actually tried to write that same story twice in the Nineties but I just couldn’t find a way to make it work. And it was only the third time I tried, around 2001, that this idea came to me: if I made them clones, who were being harvested for organ donation, the story would work.
Before that, in a more realist setting, I was really struggling: how can I get young people to go through the experience of old people, how can I contrive this situation? I was coming up with not very good ideas, like they’ve all got a disease, or they came across nuclear materials and so they were doomed to a shorter lifespan."

By opening up a new world with new possibilities an author is armed with an almost endless array of ways to tell their story. Concepts that are hard to communicate using 'traditional fiction' can be brought to life. Fantasy opens up a whole new world where the authors imagination is not confined by what happens in 'real life'. In the same way the reader is free to explore this world and use it to make sense of complex issues that have implications in their own lives. Genre has become a constraint and so has the negative view of escapism.

Essay Question Research 4

I found an article about escapist fiction by Sana Hussain called 'Literary or Not – The Reality of Escapist Fiction'. Sana Hussain is the feature editor for 'The Missing Slate' magazine and describes herself as "a shy introvert who is apprehensive about everything new and unfamiliar". I mention that because I think it may be a trait that is common among people that most enjoy escapist fiction and possibly gain the most from it. She talks about escapist fiction being viewed negatively and by highbrow readers and critics, as if its is somehow unworthy to inhabit the same world as literary fiction. Sana makes some interesting points in this article attempting to explain the misconceptions surrounding escapist fiction and the literary trends that determine the value of a genre. She argues that some older texts that are viewed as some of the greatest literary works of all time could be labelled as escapist fiction if were written  today, but they would never be described as sub-literary.

"Seen within a historical context, this bias towards escapist fiction seems even more erroneous; some of the writings that are now hailed as literary classics were the escapist writings of another century. ‘Beowulf’ and ‘The Odyssey’, considered to be among the greatest works of literature ever produced, have provided inspiration for later works of fantasy. But despite the fact that they are inspired by these classics and contain the same stock characters, adventures across oceans and the archetypal fight between good and evil, these later works are classified negatively as escapist fiction and not literature. George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘1984’ and Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ could be classified as escapist fiction by current standards, but cannot be called sub-literary in any way. Jane Austen’s novels have all the prerequisites of escapist fiction; yet today, the works modeled after hers are dismissed as intellectual drivel."

Talking about the possible benefits of escapist fiction Sana explores the idea that escapist fiction causes us to become immersed in the character of someone else and helps us to develop compassion and empathy. Sana quotes a Norwegian psychologist called Frode Stenseng who says "the direct immersion in another person’s mind and body – that stimulates our empathic muscles”. I am going to research him to try and gain more of an insight into the psychology of escapism.

A huge problem with the arrogance of certain highbrow readers and critics in relation to genre is that it removes the possibility of fairly judging a piece of fiction on its own merits, the text has already been tarnished by its genre and will, by some, never been seen as equal with literary texts in there opinion. Sana addresses this saying:

"The distinction needs to be made on good and bad writing, not on the assumption that certain genre fiction is worthless because it provides an escape to the readers; an escape that may in many cases liberates the reader and reintroduces him/her to a different reality."

Is it only escapist fiction that provides an escape? it could be argued that all types of fiction are an escape from the world we inhabit.

"if you ask me, escapism and realism are not mutually exclusive; based on the premise that all reading is eventually escapist, realist writing can contain the potential to provide escape. Likewise, escapist writing can confront the readers with the grave realities of life. Fairytales perhaps explain this dichotomy best; despite being the quintessential form of escapist writing, they are layered with universal and timeless life lessons."

Images Through Theory

For the task today I was given the word bricolage. In relation to visual arts the definition of bricolage is " construction or creation from a diverse range of available things." The practice has been used in postmodernism as a way to generate innovative and unique ideas. Constraints are used in most if not all areas of visual arts as a way to create new innovative results and change the way we think about our work. Bricolage can be used as a form of appropriation by using pre existing items with a social or cultural significance. This allows an artist to use the items original meaning to help them add meaning to their own work. Bricolage is linked to a number of the other words we looked at today, some more directly than others. It is linked to parody as it is the methodology that many artists, writers and film makers use to achieve their goals. It is an effective method because it employs pre existing visual signifiers that we all know and recognise as having meaning, the artist does not have to create the meaning themselves. they are the free to parody the meaning knowing that the audience will understand the idea behind it.

The artwork used by the sex pistols for their song god save the queen has become iconic, maybe as iconic as the original images they have used to make it. The eyes being blocked out which looks like methods commonly used to make people anonymous, often people involved in crimes. nothing in this image has been created specially for this but the thought behind the way the images have been put together create a powerful thought provoking image.

In this piece of advertising the bottom poster is only possible as a response to the Apple one above. The paint firm are effectively high jacking the advertising campaign of a much bigger company. Apple is a globally recognised brand associated with quality and innovation, at the very least this advert is funny and so memorable but it may also trigger an unconscious association between the two brands.

There are theories that all the characters in Family Guy are based on other characters from other cartoons that pre date the series. If this is true then the entire cartoon a product of bricolage. The more I read about bricolage the more examples of it I see. I need to research theorists that are interested in bricolage, I think I should start with postmodernist theorists and see where that leads.

Essay Question research 3

I want to take another look at the article by Dr Hurd as it tackles the changes in technology and the rise in escapism and depression. Dr Hurd talks about technology providing easy and instantaneous methods of escapism that can act as the "vehicle" for people to move away from their day to day lives. He goes on to say that although new technology makes escapism easier it cannot be blamed for a rise in escapism as people must have underlying beliefs or behaviour patterns that lead them towards escapist actions, "we can’t blame technology itself. For a person to engage in unhealthy escapism, he or she must have some underlying core beliefs or habits leading up to and reinforcing the problem. If somebody has these unhealthy or dysfunctional core beliefs and emotions, they will naturally gravitate towards any kind of escape.".

Dr Hurd talks about changes in society rather then technology being a more likely cause of a rise in escapism specifically in America. the middle class in America (and the UK)  would pass for the upper class in a large number of countries, and this social stability has removed the notion that "You worked and did your part for your own survival, or you died.". He uses the ages that children leave home saying that in the past we left home a lot younger because our parents couldn't afford to support us so we had to be motivated to work, earn money and survive. Now that a large number of families are better off financially children have lost that drive. he makes some good points here but I do think the world has become a more complex place with the development of technology, people are bombarded with information every minute of every day, the whole world seems to be in debt. In the past you went to work, got paid, bought food and were happy with that. Every day now we are bombarded with fear mongering news stories that threaten our way of life. it must be hard for young people today to have a good grasp of the world they are inheriting. I think that another factor in the rise of escapism could be the complexities and stresses of modern life, people feel the need to find something simpler that they can fully understand and this in turn could help them to better understand the world they live in. Of course escapism is a broad term and not all escapist activities would fit this idea.

"It has to do with less of a need for people to survive by their work, which means that if you’re going to work, then you’ll need to have some serious career ambition."

This quote is talking about a decrease in ambition that sees people being tempted to drift into fantasy. I would like to explore the idea of encouraging and inspiring people to work in fields that interest them through escapist fiction. Neil Gaiman talks about fiction not only providing an escape but equipping readers with weapons and armour to help them deal with the real world.

Essay Question Research 2

I have been reading an article in which a psychology student writes a series of questions to Dr Michael J Hurd who is an "American psychotherapist, broadcast radio show host, author, public speaker, and commentator" according the wikipedia. The title of the article is 

'Escapism vs. Refueling: Good? Bad? Or Indifferent?'

The student asks “What do you think of escapist subcultures such as Cosplay and gamers? Is this healthy behavior for people or is it deviant?”. Hurd answers the question and broadens the context of it comparing these activities to even more common methods of escapism such as shopping. he acknowledges that these escapist behaviours could take over someones life and become their primary purpose but no more so than sports or using the internet. 

"The dose makes the poison"

Dr Hurd says " don’t find anything inherently irrational or wrong – which I define as against the interests of advancing one’s life – in these activities. The question with fantasy is whether you lose contact with reality in the process of taking part in the fantasy. In other words, not whether you become psychotic or delusional (unlikely), but do you become so involved with the activity that it becomes your primary purpose in life rather than merely a method of refueling.

Refueling refers to something like a hobby. It means an activity you can pick up and put down at will. You might go days or weeks without it, as you become involved with primary relationships or career/school activities in your daily life. But you can pick it up again any time."

This is the first time I have come across the term refuelling in the context of its relationship to escapism. I'm not sure it is a necessary term unless you automatically assign a negative or extreme connotation to escapism. If escapism helps us to understand the world we live in or makes us happy when the world around is bringing us down then how do we tell when we should get back to reality? when does positive become negative?

I think this answer may overlook the possibility of an escapist activity creating a new world for that person that provides all they need in terms of social interactions and career. 

Essay Question Research

"We all have evolved to the live this kind of ‘double-life’. But for such a duality of consciousness to function effectively, Time is of the essence. By this I mean that without regularly ‘taking time out’ from the daily round to regularly ‘mull things over’ in the Mind…one is less likely to distinguish between significant and trivial experiences, and so come to develop some smidgen of wisdom as life takes its course. And the accumulation of self-knowledge is likely to be more than minimal—until one dies never really knowing one has ever lived."

This is a quote from Graham collier who is the author of 'Art and the Creative Consciousness' and ‘What the Hell Are The Neurons Up To?’. The quote id taken from an article he refers to as a short essay called 'Escapism and Contemporary Life'. He talks about the importance of spending time analysing our experiences to help us understand the world. We have become more and more used to being bombarded with information all day everyday whether it be through television, computers or our phones. Collier addresses the problem with this modern method of escapism saying. 

So I would suggest that the real form of ‘Escapism’ nowadays is the compulsive need to constantly be engaged in living an electronic life of fact-finding, problem-solving, video game playing, and personal chit-chat…And this at the expense of retreating from life’s ‘goings-on’ from time to time to exercise the Mind by mentally re-living events…in the course of which one discovers unexpected, intuitively held sensibilities and attitudes concerning the way things have been going: the overall result being the ability to ‘see’ oneself as very much an individual—very much one’s own person.

He suggests that we have become constantly plugged into news feeds for almost every waking hour in our lives and have lost our individuality and sense of self in the process. I think we need time to make sense of our environment. people struggle to take in information that challenges their beliefs. I remember reading a study about how long it takes people to admit they are wrong, I will have to see if I can find the study again. 

Which is more dangerous escapism or a complete lack of it?

Essay Question 2

I got the idea to research escapism from a quote by Neil Gaiman. He disagrees the way escapism has become viewed as negative in modern culture.

“People talk about escapism as if it's a bad thing... Once you've escaped, once you come back, the world is not the same as when you left it. You come back to it with skills, weapons, knowledge you didn't have before. Then you are better equipped to deal with your current reality

as a writer of escapist fiction should you try to tailor your work as a positive influence on your readers lives?

I think it would be interesting to see if any studies have been done to evaluate the effectiveness of escapism as a coping mechanism. Escapism is a broad term that can include a wide range of activities from drug use to reading. Is it the case that there are good and bad kinds of escapism? is any form of escapism a good thing as long as it is used in moderation?

There seems to be a view that there is a risk of becoming lost in the world that you escape into and it becomes more important than your 'normal' life. Some people manage to make careers from there escapist activities, have they managed to create there own world? better than the one they previously inhabited?

Neil Gaiman touches on the idea that escapist fiction can do more than just provide an escape from everyday life but that it can teach you how to deal with your life, giving you knowledge and skills to help you cope with the stresses and strains of the real world.

I think that chosing escapism as a basis form my essay will provide me with interesting research material and could provide an inspiring basis for my practice.

Essay Question

This is my original research question that I decided on a few weeks ago. I like the question and think it would be an interesting avenue to research. While working on another module I started to look at escapism and why it is viewed in such a negative way. I have started looking into this as another option as the basis of my essay. I am going to brainstorm ideas and see if I can find some useful pre existing research into escapism. I am not going to completely abandon this question at this point but I want to make sure I am exploring different possibilities at this stage.

Triangulation

Yesterday we were given 3 texts and asked to read one of them then as a group determine what was the common theme between them and how they relate to each other. We determined that the text 'Visual Pleasure and  Narrative Cinema' by Laura Mulvey was the primary text as it contained the most information about the common theme and it was referred back to in both the other texts. Laura Mulvey is a Cine-psychoanalyst, film theorist and feminist who is currently professor of film and media studies at Birbeck, university of London. This text in an analysis of the representation of gender in film. Mulvey addresses the ideas of phalocentism (the privileging of the masculine (phallus) in the construction of meaning), scopophilia ( sexual pleasure derived from looking at erotic objects), objectification (the act of treating a person, or sometimes an animal,
as an object or a thing), narcissism (the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one's own attributes) and exhibitionism (behavior that is meant to attract attention to yourself). Mulvey proposes that women are always portrayed in film as passive because films are aimed at young straight men and an active female character would be emasculating. Mulvey believes the current structure of cinema should be torn down and replaced with a feminist avante-garde cinema. Mulvey obviously feels very strongly about her theories and analysis of gender roles within film and the cultural implications of this.

John Storeys text 'Cultural Theory and Popular culture' is in support of Laura Mulveys theroies and analysis. John Storey is a cultural studies theorist and professor at the University of Sunderland. in his text storey talks about the male gaze and how in film we are lead to view the world and women specifically from a heterosexual males point of view. he talks about the pleasure of sexual cinema needing to be destroyed which ties in to mulvey's idea of a feminist avante-garde cinema. Storey also talks about scopophilia and women being presented as sexual objects in film from the viewpoint of the male character. The male characters are meant to appear as idealised version of ourselves ( if you are a heterosexual male), the women are desirable and portrayed as sexual objects inviting the male viewer to put them selves in the place of the male lead character and to objectify women in the same way.

Richard Dyer is a Film studies professor at Kings College London specialising in cinema, queer theory and the relationship between race, sexuality and gender. Dyer's paper 'Stars and Audiences' is an analuysis of spectatorship theory addressing life mimicking film and how people identify with 'stars'. Dyer seems to have the least emotional investment in the subject, he references a large number of sources compared to the other texts and tries to put forward counter arguments to aspects of the theory and its research. Dyer addresses possible flaws in Mulvey's theories such as narrative film often including views of male characters bodies and looks between male characters. He then goes on to provide additional analysis of this from another source that says looks between male characters are purposely made threatening or aggressive to remove any possibility of them being interpreted as erotic. Dyer is approaching the subject from a different perspective incorporating queer theory which breaks down the simple male, female boundary. The text also addresses the direct effects of 'stars' on the spectator. Spectators mimic the characters they see in films whether it be pretending to them as children or trying to look and dress like them as adults. Dyer looks at the positive and negative aspects of this. He addresses the work of Jackie Stacey who argues that women are left in a "contradictory discourse" as the styles from movies where based on being an object of male desire but that they offered an escape from the material difficulties of women in Britain at the time. I don't think the latter is in any way a justification for the former but it does highlight the attempts by Richard dyer to produce a balanced perspective.

Study Task 1

johnny cupcakes is an illustrator and clothing designer that has built a successful business and international following based on a some vibrant fun designs and a a very simple premise. Johnny cupcakes reuses the same 'fat kid' character with imagery from american diners that are an iconic staple of american culture. He draws references from popular culture through films, cartoons, music and so on, his work could be described as "a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres

of culture." He often uses references from cult classics and iconography from the past focussing on 80's and 90's culture. This may give some indication of the illustrators age but once the image is introduced to the viewer any of the meaning disappears as the viewer redefines the image based on their own knowledge. "Writing is that neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing." I think the same can be said for illustration as the images only gain meaning as they are given it by the viewer. I was born in 1984 and grew up listening to hip hop so I am drawn to the clothing made by Johnny Cupcakes that features those specific references, however there are plenty of designs from the same era that I am not familiar with and so have no impact on me aside from the design itself.

It is the viewer that dictates the meaning of the image based on their own experiences, culture, biases, prejudices and loves, "The reader is the space on which all the quotations that make up a writing are inscribed without any of them being lost; a text's unity lies not in its origin but in its destination."

Taking into account the target audience is a huge part of being a successful illustrator and although in al lot cases there will be no huge differences in knowledge in the multicultural, information age we live in it is still easy to stumble into the discovery through conversation, reading or illustration that your view point is yours alone and is based on a very specific set of influences. Andrew Saris proposed a set of 3 criteria based on François Truffaut's ‘politique des auteurs’ (auteurs theory): "the director must demonstrate technical expertise, have a stylistic signature that is visible over the course of several films and, through his or her choice of projects and cinematic treatment, show a consistency of vision and interior meaning." I think this set of criteria can be applied to the work of johnny Cupcakes, his work maintains a signature style both through the aesthetics of his designs and his repeated use of set visual devices such as characters and logo's.

Although the subjects of Johnny cupcakes work vary there are common themes that run through his body of work. His work is based often based on popular culture from the 80's and 90's, he does not try to subvert the original meaning of the subject matter but rather celebrate its memory, it is very much a nostalgic look back at that era. Some of his work can not really be given a specific date such as his designs based on Halloween, baseball or other American cultural institutions, however the common theme could well be childhood memories. I think this is an interesting choice of subject matter in that its entire appeal depends on the viewers previous knowledge of the subject matter, this could seem like it would limit a target market but what it does is give your work an instant appeal to a large audience even if they are not familiar with your work. The success of this choice of subject matter shows the power of popular culture and the fondness we have for childhood memories.

Although Johnny Cupcakes choices of subject matter could inform us about his life, age, nationality I think the only thing it tells us for sure is that he understands the strength of his subject matter and the size of the demographic he caters to. His work engages the interest of his audience at which point we assign meaning to his illustrations based on our own experiences.

Getting Started

I have been trying to think of interesting themes for this years COP project. Last year I enjoyed researching the idea of universally recognised symbols. I would like to try and find a theme that will directly impact my practice. I have been trying to brainstorm ideas that I find interesting and that will help me to push the boundaries of how I view illustration.

• I think it would be useful to try and use methods that I don't normally use in my practice during this module to try and broaden my practice.
• I would like to investigate the Reappropriation of subculture/counterculture by high fashion. I find it interesting that counter cultures often lead the way in innovation of fashion and art and their aesthetics are invariably adopted by high fashion labels once they reach a certain level of popularity. is it possible for these labels or designers to reproduce the message of these cultures without losing the essence of it in the process. Kidult is a graffiti artist from Paris who targets fashion stores for their reappropriation if graffiti and the 'Vision' section of his website makes for interesting reading. Kidult Vision
• I would like to investigate the influence of Japanese art of western art and design.
• How fiction benefits society. Neil Gaiman Fiction
• How Genre works Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro
• How can Illustration change the world Ted Talk JR
• cultural appropriation
• praise for appropriation

Final Evaluation

Finished Essay

Final Practical Response to Studio Brief 2 - Visual Evaluation/Presentation

Lecture Colour theory 2

Lecture History of Image

Lecture What is research

Reflection, evaluation and analysis should form a cyclical process of creative practice between professionalism, theory and practice.

knowledge is the recollection or recognition of information that is then analysed separated it into its component parts. The information can they be transformed into different forms or media. The learner can then apply the information to solve problems using appropriate methods. The learner makes qualitative and quantitative judgements relating to the process to measure the value of the outcomes so far. The learner then uses original and creative thinking to solve problems using the information gained through the process. The cycle then starts again.

If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?

Albert Einstein

Stimulated approach is conscious or subconscious inspiration from external stimuli. How we are influenced by our surroundings such as television, discussion and environment.

Systematic approach is the collection or modification of components. these components can be added, taken away, enlarged, reduced, modified, reproduced etc.

Intuitive approach involves internal perceptions and knowledge that can be triggered subconsciously. this is a systematic approach that takes place subconsciously .

research is finding out by asking

How?

Why?

What IF?

Primary research is research to be used for a specific use, this is usually a collection of information that did not exist previously.

secondary research is information that has already been collected for a reason other than the current project.

Quantitiative research deals with facts and figures. A range of data that can be compared and analysed to find the information needed. Numerical or measurable data that can converted into numbers.

Qualitative research deals with beliefs, behaviour and experiences and attempts to understand them. The information produced is non-numerical and can be gathered using interviews, focus groups and observation.

Lecture Type Production and Distribution

"The spoken word disappears... the written word endures"

Neil Postman

The origins of writing are in Mesopotamia around 3200BC. Writing allowed language to achieve longevity and travel widely and accurately over distance and time. 'True Alphabets' assign letters as both consonants and vowels. The first of these was the Greek Alphabet which was adapted form the Phoenician. Latin is the most widely used alphabet and is a further development of the Greek,

Typography is based on the arrangement and printing of moveable type which with the invention of the Gutenburg printing press in 1440 allowed written language to be printed and distributed in large quantities. A single renaissance press could print 3600 pages every prompted mass production of books for the first time in history. Printing started in Mainz, Germany and within 2 decades spread to over 200 cities in a dozen European countries. Printing went on to have a huge impact on society as a hole as information spread relatively unrestricted crossing borders and challenging the power of political and religious authorities. The increase in literacy prompted to emergence of the middle class as the monopoly on education was broken.

In 1990 Apple Macintosh released the first of its computers to sell for less than $1000. this computer allowed people to work with vectors and create their own type. the general public have access to programs that are capable of producing fonts to an industry standard.

lecture Visual Literacy

Communication is the process of using text and images to share information and relies on shared understanding. We use symbols as tools to help us communicate our ideas to an audience. how we communicate id affected by the audience we are trying to reach and the media we are using. Visual literacy is our ability to successfully convey our message through visual images and type.

visual literacy is based on the belief that images can be read. We are able to do this because there is a common understanding of the meanings of certain shapes and symbols. This understanding works in the same way as any language but there is more room for experimentation and thought provoking variations on themes.

Visual syntax are the building blocks that make up an image and visual semantics refer to how that image fits into social and cultural environments, like religious beliefs, social ideals and political ideas. Brands like Nike have logos that are made up of very simple images that are able to communicate the ideals of the company, the logo suggests a set of values based on previous knowledge and marketing.

The Apple logo

SYMBOL- It symbolises an apple

SIGN- It is a sign for apple products

SIGNIFIER-It signifies the brand identity and the values it represents, in this case innovation, quality, creativity, lifestyle,

Visual Synecdoche is term for a small part of something being used to represent the whole thing or vice versa. For example the statue of liberty can be used to represent New York as a whole.

A Visual Metonym works in a similar way but the two objects are not intrinsically linked. A yellow taxi can be used to make a connection to New York even though they are not exclusive to the city. In some cases visual metonyms are based on false information but the shared knowledge is more powerful than the reality.

A visual metaphor is used to transfer meaning from one image to another, the images may not have a close connection. The a familiar image is used to covey information about something unfamiliar.

Triangulation & Harvard Referencing

Triangulation

The authors of all three of these manifesto's discuss the role of visual communicators in consumerism. Garland, (1964), Adbusters, (2000) and Kalman, (1998) all comment on creatives losing their identity becoming part of corporate machines designed to build brand identity and increase sales. Kalman for instance talks about creative people creating work based on corporate strategy rather then individualism. Kalman says "By now, virtually all media, architecture, product and graphic design have been freed from ideas, individual passion, and have been relegated to a role of corporate servitude". This type of commercial work is a good steady income for designers in a profession where job security can be a constant worry. Over time this has caused this kind of work to be seen as the sole purpose of designers rather then a way to make a living. Adbusters touch on this issue saying "Commercial work has always paid the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure, what graphic designers do. This, in turn, is how the world perceives design."

Image Analysis

This Jaguar advert tries to create an aspirational want for their products as nobody really needs an expensive sports car. In a market saturated with companies offering very similar products brand identity becomes very important. The brand and the car itself become a status symbol, a show of wealth. For this advert Jaguar have hired David Beckham, a rich celebrity heartthrob to help showcase one of their cars. The brand is trying to tell you that you should buy the car because it will make you appear wealthy,more attractive and generally superior to anyone that doesn't own one. Adbusters, (2000)  said that "The profession's time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best."

Evaluation

Garland's Manifesto, (1964) presents its perspective on the way designers, photographers and students are taught that the most lucrative use of their skills is to sell products that we have no real need for. the Manifesto is unapologetically bold and almost aggressive in its summary of the industry creatives often occupy, it uses words like "flogged" and "wasted" to describe the ways in which designers work is used. The Manifesto asks for change, seeking an application for skills that is of benefit to society as a whole not just a means to improve sales for corporations. The tone of the manifesto is angry but ends with hope that as a society we can move away from consumerism and designers can produce work that is "worthwhile". The Manifesto hopes society will "tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders.

Paraphrase

Writing in the First Things First Manifesto, Adbusters, (2000) explain how creatives have been encouraged to seek work advertising things we don't really need, and over time how this has led to the belief that this is what design is. The Manifesto is a call for change, seeking a more worthy use for visual communication. Adbusters believe that this issue has wider social implications as the only conversation being had through visual communication is one of consumerism, therefore start new conversations.